Friday, December 9, 2011

Revelations about email transactions between the US State Department
and the Russian election watchdog Golos prior to Russia's parliamentary
elections threaten to bring the reset to a grinding halt.
Before a single vote was cast in the parliamentary elections, a
string of incidents indicated that foreign governments were already
exerting influence over the election process.

Golos, an
independent watchdog that has been monitoring elections in Russia for 10
years, was fined 30,000 rubles ($1,000) last week by a Moscow court for
publishing “election-related opinion polls and research” after
a deadline for publishing such material had passed (it is illegal in
Russia to publish such information five days or less before an
election).

Duma officials who petitioned to start a probe with
the prosecutor’s office argued that the NGO was funded by “foreign
organizations” hoping to influence the results of the elections.

­Watchdogs to guard the watchdogs?

The
Russian news website Life News on Friday published emails it claims
show correspondence between the US State Department and the Russian
election watchdog Golos that detail payments for work done to discredit
the results of Russia’s parliamentary vote.

­Life News reported it
has come into the possession of 60 megabytes of Golos' private online
correspondence sent and received by Golos Executive Chief Lilya
Shibanova and her deputy Grigory Melkonyants. Judging by the published
documents, the Russian election watchdog, which claimed to be an
independent entity, was actually funded by the US State Department to
advance US foreign policy objectives..... MORE

1 comment

"The Russian news website Life News on Friday published emails it claims show correspondence between the US State Department and the Russian election watchdog Golos that detail payments for work done to discredit the results of Russia’s parliamentary vote.

­"Life News reported it has come into the possession of 60 megabytes of Golos' private online correspondence sent and received by Golos Executive Chief Lilya Shibanova and her deputy Grigory Melkonyants. Judging by the published documents, the Russian election watchdog, which claimed to be an independent entity, was actually funded by the US State Department to advance US foreign policy objectives."